Upon receiving the appointment, the Head of Department, Dr. Magistrate Abubakar Binneh Kamara expressed sincere thanks and appreciations to the Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and Law, Dr. Dante Bendu, and the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone and Principal of Fourah Bay College, Professor Sahr Gbamanja for the confidence they bestowed upon him to act in the capacity as the head of law department. “Let me also thank the out gone Head of Department, Mr. Shears Moses for the effort he had made in bringing the department to the level it is today,” he stated.
The new Head of Law Department said he was pleased with the effort that had been made by his predecessor in making the department a credible one, that people always rely on upon accessing legal education, in the country; Dr. Kamara promised that he will thrive in the path of his predecessor in order to upkeep and continue to register success stories in the department. He further explained that 20 years ago the department was a faculty on its own while he was a student of the department.
Dr. Magistrate Abubakar Binneh Kamara narrated that the department of law was eventually transformed into a department when there was no academic doctor after the Honourable Justice of the Supreme Court, Professor Joko Smart had left Fourah Bay College as head of the department to take up an appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone. As he pointed out that the university’s policy stated that a faculty must be headed by an academic doctor and because of that the department was then merged with the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law.
Dr. Kamara said with his academic qualification and support from majority of his colleague’s lecturers in the department, there will be instantaneous transformation of the department into faculty. He said the transformation will witness the introduction of new department; new modules and that student would have the opportunity and privilege to specialize in different discipline within the law profession.
As he further elaborated on the transformation process, a lecturer in the department, Rashid Dumbuya (Esq), who happened to be an expert in international law and diplomatic law, applauded the university administration for making a very decisive and positive change into the department. He stated that there will be a new structural buildings, conference room, a website for the department where students would publish their dissertations and other academic materials for public consumption, organize frequent moot court debate, prepare students to participate in moot court debate internationally, giving opportunity to students to attend court session intermittently, the introduction of LLM and internships program, among others.
In his comment, a senior lecturer in the department Francis Gabidon (Esq) said Dr. Binneh Kamara has proved himself to be an outstanding product of the law department. He stated that Binneh is the first locally trained lawyer to head the Law Department, noting that what the learned doctor had achieved within the shortest period of time, no other lawyer that is a product of Fourah Bay College had achieved.
Mr. Francis Gabidon said the desire for change had been long overdue, adding that Fourah Bay College happened to be the only college in West Africa that had a law course and with no law faculty. “This is something we are not proud of and we are determining to transform the department in a shortest possible time”, he stated.